‘Instilling objectives’ is high priority for new U17 coach Bonofiglio

With the CONCACAF Boys’ National Under-17 Qualifiers fast approaching, Guyana’s national team members are currently hard at work, perfecting their game ahead of the competition.
Guyana has been drawn in Group B of the qualifiers, where they would compete against hosts Costa Rica, Trinidad and Tobago, British Virgin Islands, and Sint Maarten for a spot in the 2025 FIFA U17 World Cup.
For these all-important qualifiers, the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) has brought in new staff to shepherd this national U17 team, known as the Junior Jaguars. Included in the new staff is Head Coach Marco Bonofiglio.
During a training session on Monday, Bonofiglio revealed that selecting his 21-man squad is the first of his priorities upon the commencement of the training camp. He shared, “As far as it goes with how we’ve been working for the team, in these two weeks that I’ve been here, the first preparation has been on the player selection. That was our first objective: to collect and select the right 21 players that we feel are ready for Costa Rica.”
What has impressed the new coach thus far are the eagerness to compete and the physical fitness of these Guyanese players. He believes these aspects would also improve with time.
“What I love here so far (is), I found a group of 45 players when I started this camp. They were absolutely eager, and a lot of work; ready to go. So, the eagerness before practice, the concentration during practice, and the togetherness and group as a family that we’ve had off the field after training has been phenomenal,” Bonofiglio responded to enquiries about observations he has made thus far.
The coach detailed, “We had our physical trainer here. She was working with the team very, very intensely the last 7-10 days. Our physical trainer has taken over today as well, and the players are growing every day. I can tell you that we had a match the other day that was about 70 minutes, and they performed very well. We do have a friendly match against a local men’s senior team, and we’re going to see the results of that and if the players are ready to go for 90 minutes.”
As Head Coach Bonofiglio heads into his second week of preparation with the national team, building a structure and instilling the need to stick to their objectives are at the top of his list.
“What I’d like to stress on more now with these boys is building a structure, building a methodology, building our objectives on our game model. That’s what I want to focus on; that’s what we’re doing this week; and that’s what I’m spending most of my time on,” Bonofiglio divulged.
“I want to remind everybody that we have four very difficult matches (against) four countries that we have a lot of respect for, that we know have been working very hard to have their own success at the World Cup Qualifiers,” he declared.
“For us in particular, I want to stress to the players and the staff that we stick to our objectives that we’ve been working on. The players should enter the match free and clear, and understanding of what the coach wants; what’s the objectives going into the match; and we’re going to stick to those 2, 3, 4 things that we’ve worked on very well and try to execute them to the best of our ability,” he added.
The CONCACAF U17 Qualifiers will be played from February 7 to 16, 2025. Guyana is expected to come up against old rivals Trinidad and Tobago first, on February 7. With eight groups in the qualifiers, each group winner would seal a spot at the upcoming U17 World Cup.